Nara was the first capital of Japan (before it moved to Kyoto). It still holds several sites which we visited today. The nice thing about Nara is that everything can be done by foot. the key sites are located in the Nara park or around it.
We walked from the station to the park and met the deer almost immediately. Apart from the sites, Nara is famous for all the deer that are living freely in the park. They are everywhere. They look filthy. They are like the pigeons in Jardin du Luxembourg or the squirrels in Yosemite. While it's nice to see them and Oskar enjoyed it a lot, our challenge was to ensure that none would touch him.
First stop was Todai-ji temple. The first gate to the temple is massive.
The temple itself is huge as it holds a 50m-high Buddha. We've seen a lot of Buddhas over the years in China and Thailand but this one is really big. Even Oskar noticed it.
A "little" Buddha on the side.
The big Buddha.
We lit a candle for the whole family. By then, Oskar had figured out that in every temple there are candles and was eagerly pointing at my bag to get coins for the candles.
To encourage donation, the temple offers to buy a tile, to write a message on it and later it will be placed on the roof. We got one for Oskar so even if he does not remember his trip to Japan, Todai-ji temple will have a mark of his visit. Wolfram took up th challenge to write with the brush.
After Oskar's lunch and some quality time with the deer, we visited the Kasuga-Taisha shrine. Oskar was so focused on the gravel that I am not sure he noticed the place where he was.
On the way back, we stopped at Kyoto station for our lunch/dinner combo. We ate some pork cutlet and shrimp tempura set meal (i.e. with miso soup, Japanese pickles and lot's of rice). Once Oskar woke up from his nap, he greedily ate some rice from my bowl. Japanese rice is very sticky so the poor little guy did not know what to do with the grains stuck on his hands. As you can imagine, many (many many) ended up on my t-shirt.
We walked from the station to the park and met the deer almost immediately. Apart from the sites, Nara is famous for all the deer that are living freely in the park. They are everywhere. They look filthy. They are like the pigeons in Jardin du Luxembourg or the squirrels in Yosemite. While it's nice to see them and Oskar enjoyed it a lot, our challenge was to ensure that none would touch him.
First stop was Todai-ji temple. The first gate to the temple is massive.
We lit a candle for the whole family. By then, Oskar had figured out that in every temple there are candles and was eagerly pointing at my bag to get coins for the candles.
To encourage donation, the temple offers to buy a tile, to write a message on it and later it will be placed on the roof. We got one for Oskar so even if he does not remember his trip to Japan, Todai-ji temple will have a mark of his visit. Wolfram took up th challenge to write with the brush.
After Oskar's lunch and some quality time with the deer, we visited the Kasuga-Taisha shrine. Oskar was so focused on the gravel that I am not sure he noticed the place where he was.
The shrine buildings themselves were not exceptional, what was great were all the pathways around bordered by lanterns.
There was a whole forest of these lanterns. I could imagine how it would look like at night when they light up. It felt like being in one of Miyazaki's cartoon movies. I could see where he it his imagination.
On the way back, we stopped at Kyoto station for our lunch/dinner combo. We ate some pork cutlet and shrimp tempura set meal (i.e. with miso soup, Japanese pickles and lot's of rice). Once Oskar woke up from his nap, he greedily ate some rice from my bowl. Japanese rice is very sticky so the poor little guy did not know what to do with the grains stuck on his hands. As you can imagine, many (many many) ended up on my t-shirt.
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